BERLIN - The White House chief of staff and his German counterpart met Tuesday amid a serious rift over allegations of US spying.

Germany ordered the Berlin CIA station chief to leave the country on July 10 in an unprecedented show of anger after uncovering two cases of suspected US spying, hot on the heels of mass surveillance by the National Security Agency (NSA).

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose mobile phone was tapped by the NSA, last week spoke by telephone with US President Barack Obama with relations between the two allies at their most strained since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.